Lord and Master
by RB Cherub
Summary: Based during the Year That Never Was, after Torchwood is sent to the Himalayas by Mister Saxon.


Toshiko lay on the hard stone floor. She looked asleep, but sleep was the last thing on her mind. She was going over her Rift Manipulator equations, and could see in her mind's eye every number, every cosine. Close by her, Ianto Jones sat on the floor, his suit in tatters, his tie, belt and shoelaces taken from him. He was muttering to himself.

'Penny for your thoughts?' Tosh offered.

'Bum deal.' Ianto looked down at her. 'I thought you were asleep.'

'When was the last time _you_ slept?'

Ianto thought for a moment, trying to remember. 'How long have we been here?'

'Thirty-three days. Not that I'm counting or anything.' She rolled over, onto her back. 'I was going over my rift equations.'

'Again?'

'It helps me relax.'

Ianto snorted. 'I was going over _Thunderball_ in my head. "My dear girl, don't flatter yourself. What I did this evening was for Queen and country. You don't think it gave me any pleasure, do you?" Not my absolute favourite, but it passes the time.'

They'd been sent there by Mister Saxon. Looking back, no one complained or questioned. Why would they want, or need, to go to the Himalayas? But Saxon had convinced them all that it was a good idea, that they really could help the UNIT team out there, studying the liberated Yeti population.

They had met with Donnie Walker at the airport; he would be guiding them.

Gwen had been airsick, spending half the trip with her head in a bag. Toshiko was asleep when it happened. What actually happened, she would never know. She woke when Owen had shaken her, screaming at her to wake up.

The pilot was dead, and the cockpit was a flaming hole. The plane went down in the snow, and the next thing she was really aware of, she was in this cell. At first, she thought she was back in that UNIT cell, and that was when she got scared. Then she had seen Ianto, looking down with concern. She had thrown her arms around him, scared the life out of him, and there they had stayed, in that cell, for thirty-three days. No contact had been made with their captors. Every six hours, a hatch in the door would open, and two bowls of something- neither of them cared to imagine what- would appear.

The door suddenly opened, blinding the pair of them. They both got to their feet, and Ianto stepped in front of Toshiko. A man entered, brandishing an old rifle, aimed at them both. Yelling in whatever the local dialect was, Toshiko could make out the basics of what he was saying. Something about an intruder?

The man stepped forward, eyes on Toshiko. Ianto stepped in his path.

'You want her… you gotta get through me.'

The man spun his rifle around and stabbed it into his gut. Ianto tried to keep his footing, but sank to the floor. The man aimed his rifle right at Toshiko, and he yelled again.

The door opened once more, and the room was filled with blinding light from outside. The man with the gun span around, yelling at the light. Something like "Show yourself!"

A silhouette stood in the doorway. There was a short, sharp whooshing sound, and the man fell, screaming. Toshiko helped Ianto to his feet and they stood, back against the wall, expecting the worse. The silhouette moved forward, and Owen Harper limped into the cell, kicking the rifle away from the man and towards Ianto.

'Oh, I'm sorry.' He said to the man as he clutched his leg, 'Were you using that kneecap?' hitting him over the head with his handgun, the man fell, out cold or worse.

'Owen? Toshiko could barely believe her eyes, nor contain her joy at seeing him again.

'Who were you expecting? Jack?' Owen scoffed.

'Where's Gwen and Donnie?' Ianto picked up the fallen man's rifle, checking it over.

Owen shook his head. 'Didn't make it. Donnie never made it off the plane.'

'I'm glad to see you.' Toshiko said as they made for the door.

'Me too, sweetheart. Come on.'

The place was deserted as the last of Torchwood quietly made their way along darkened passageways. They were in an underground bunker of some kind. Judging from the stencilled writing every so often, Toshiko guessed an old Russian military base, probably abandoned after the cold war and taken by these… militants.

Coming to a junction of two corridors, Owen waved his arm, and the three of them crushed themselves against the wall, hunkering down into the shadows. Toshiko watched, amazed, intrigued and terrified, as a segmented silver sphere, the size of a basketball, hovered slowly past them, lines of golden lights flickering as it flew.

'What is it?' she asked in a whisper, as soon as she thought it was out of earshot.

'Don't know for sure. All I know, it's called a Toclafane, and they're right evil little bastards. They got Gwen.'

The coast was clear. They continued, following Owen.

'What happened to you?' Tosh asked, the only one not armed.

'After the plane went down, I woke up in this weird little village. They hid me from the Toclafanes and nursed me back to health. And I thought that kind of shit only happened in '60s tv shows.'

The three of them came out into a garage, full of ex military vehicles and storage crates. Finding an empty jeep, Ianto hotwired it, and took the wheel. Toshiko took his rifle and sat in the back, while Owen rode shotgun. Rounding the corner, Owen exhaled.

'Shit. They've upped security. Must've found their mate.'

'What do we do?' Toshiko wasn't strapped in. None of them were. No seatbelts.

As if in response to the question, Ianto slammed his foot down on the accelerator pedal. The jeep's engine and wheels screamed in protest. Ducking behind the armoured windshields, Owen and Toshiko managed to take out some of them. A few others were crushed under the Jeep, as Ianto floored it though the gate.

Thundering down the bleak stone road, Ianto ignored the bullethole in his arm. He was too close to getting out of that shithole to care about a flesh wound. Behind him, Toshiko pressed herself against the back of Owen's seat, ready to aim the rifle at whoever, whatever could be following them.

'Where are we going?' She asked, her hands clasped around the rifle, calm and collected. In her head, the numbers and symbols ran their course.

'If we can get back to that village, we might have a chance.' Owen checked the rounds in his gun. 'There's a sorta underground movement I got in contact with. Some bloke called Lethbridge Stewart running what's left of UNIT.'

'So where am I aiming this bloody rust bucket.'

'Hang a left, up ahead.'

No one could have seen the landmines in the road, buried under the sharp gravel. Toshiko felt rather than heard the explosion, a savage blow to all the bones of her body. The jeep flew twenty, thirty feet into the air. Thrown clear of it, Toshiko flew in slow motion, watching the ground coming up to strike her in the face.

Ianto Jones' blue-grey eyes stared blankly into the blue-grey sky, a thick shard of glass run through his throat. He was the only one still in the jeep, impaled on the steering wheel.

Doctor Owen Harper lay with his back pressed against a rock; by the way his back had contorted around it, he knew that he would never walk again. Everything past his ribcage had gone cold and numb, and he knew he had to be bleeding internally. Everything around him was a blood-hazed blur. The only thing he could see was her. Toshiko.

Dragging herself across the hard ground, her broken leg dragging behind her, she finally reached him, and collapsed onto him. He didn't feel her on his legs.

She looked up at him, one eye puffed out and blood red. 'Looks like we won't make it out of this one.' Her teeth felt loose in her mouth.

'I'm sorry' Owen's teeth were covered in blood. 'Bollocksed it up again. Some rescue.'

Toshiko grabbed his broken hand with all the strength she had left. 'You did your best.'

From over the crest of the valley, from the road they had been thrown off of, three Toclafane spheres appeared, rising into the air above them.

'_Naughty little Torchwood people._' One of them said, bobbing in the air. Toshiko watched, as half a dozen spiked blades extended from the underside of each sphere, glinting in the light.

'_Our Master does not approve._'

Knowing it to be the end, Doctor Owen Harper held onto Toshiko Sato, as she buried her head in his chest.

'I love you.' She whispered. 'Always have.'

'Kind of a shit time to tell me, sweetheart.'

Holding onto each other, Owen and Toshiko closed their eyes, totally at peace.

They didn't scream as the Toclafane cleaved and slice though their bodies. The valley echoed with the sound of metal on flesh.


End file.
